New York's history starts over 5,000 years ago. Thousands of years later, Native American tribes came such as Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca. In 1624 the dutch established a colony called Manhattan Island. This is now called New Amsterdam. It was  renamed as New York (what its called today) after the British took over in 1664. After the American Revolution, New York became a US colony and in 1788 New York became a state.